Many modern systems and equipment are equipped with various electronic sensing and control devices to enhance and carry out functionality of the systems. The capabilities of these systems range from monitoring system and environmental conditions to controlling aspects of the system based on these conditions or other control parameters. Such sensing and control devices, as well as some other electronic components of the system need to be powered. However, many of these systems are located remote from power sources, such as systems in subterranean or downhole environments, as is common in the oil and gas industry. In such cases, it may undesirable or impractical to provide power lines from the power sources to the systems.
Remote power generation systems were developed and often used to generate power at the system and provide power to the system electronics. A number of power generation methods are used, including flow induced vibration, fluid flow energy, radioactive materials, and the like. One prominent remote power generation technique involves the use of piezoelectric elements, which generate energy through vibrational motion. For example, in downhole systems, the current state of the art is to expose small and independent piezoelectric elements against the flow of a fluid stream so that the interaction between the piezoelectric elements and the fluid stream maintains a level of high frequency vibration, causing the piezoelectric elements to generate and output energy. However, when piezoelectric elements are exposed to the fluid flow stream, which may contain particulates, erosion or other wear on the piezoelectric elements may occur, decreasing the longevity of the piezoelectric elements and thus the power generation system.